An Old Catholic History...

The history of the Old Catholic Movement within Catholicism is significant
for our faith community because it is from the Old Catholic Church that the Catholic Church of America derives her apostolic succession.
This excerpt of the article was written by an Old Catholic Benedictine brother
who lived in an Old Catholic community in
Woodstock
,
New York
. This writing is somewhat dated in that it was written and published in 1941
for a local newspaper, The Catskill Mountain Star. The Old Catholic
Movement is held together by the Declaration
of Utrecht. You may also want to check out the following:
A HISTORY OF THE
SO-CALLED JANSENIST CHURCH OF
HOLLAND.

The vicissitudes of time and the machinations of men give words strange
connotations. Often they no longer fit the mental pictures they create. When
Woostockians looked up to Overlook Mountain and saw high on its slopes the gray
clad figures of a religious community rehabilitating the deserted little chapel
below Mead’s Mountain House, they were puzzled to hear the several young men
calling themselves "Old", displaying an evangelistic enthusiasm for a
faith they called "Catholic". They were completely nonplused when one
of the older men of the community in overalls addressed a similarly clad younger
man "Father".

With the passage of days, however,
Woodstock
had grown to know and like these men as they have grown to like
Woodstock
more and more. Through the first summer Sundays the bell that echoed down the
mountainside from the Church of Christ-on-the-Mount called increasing numbers to
worship with the young "Old" Catholics and with the advent of winter a
place of worship had to be found in the village. Then in an old red barn,
adjoining the Woodstock Country Club on the Saugerties-Woodstock road, whose
hand hewn beams and weathered boards teem with memories and the romance of
bygone days, they prayed for the common healing of the ills of humanity together
with people who have been previously unchurched, dechurched or never-before
churched. But with the exception of those with whom their activities have grown,
and the friendly folk with whom they visit, the paradox of "Old" and
"Catholic" and "young" and "evangelistic" still
remains.

Except for the fact that "they never past a collection plate" at
Saint Dunstan’s Church but believe instead in laboring with their own hands at
crafts that are both beautiful and practical many good folk still know little of
their past, their future hopes, their unique doctrinal and ecclesiastical
position or of their modern and adaptable approach to the world’s problems. To
let them know that in the first place "Old Catholicism" is not merely
a local and new cult but a long existent world wide "Movement" -- that
their ministrations are not bound within the limited horizons of creed and
denominationalism but extend to the boundless need of people weary of religious
disunity and eager for a genuine expression of Christ-likeness, is their own
self-desire.

To adequately portray the gray habited Benedictines of the Old Catholic
Church necessitates a major historical operation. Out of the pages of Christian
history one must find the path that identifies their purpose. Of the various
Christian movements in
America
, few are as little known and as much misunderstood as the Old Catholics. The
foundations of their history must be traced to the first centuries of
Christianity. To identify them in the contemporary scene of Christian
activities, however, means that an orientation in relation to other bodies must
be made.

The division of Christendom into two great categories, Protestantism and
Catholicism, is familiar to all. But while most people know more or less of the
various denominations of Protestantism, what is known as the Catholic Church has
its administrative and disciplinary divisions with which few people, not
historians or theologians, are familiar. Holding the same essential faith, the
Eastern Orthodox Church with 180 million souls and the Roman Catholic Church
with its 240 million souls, each hold a different concept of administration. The
Old Catholic Church is unique in that it holds the Catholic faith, being in
union with the Eastern Orthodox Church, representing the Catholic Church in the
western world, but disavowing the administrative peculiarities of the Latin
(Roman) Church.

To hold a position of any kind obviously admits that there must be a counter
position -- both of which must have been arrived at through the consequences of
some action in the past. The touchstone of how closely the Old Catholic movement
represents primitive Christianity can only be shown by proving its fidelity to
the faith of the undivided Church and through the unbroken succession of its
Episcopate (Bishops).

The different conceptions of truth that people hold, like words, are
paradoxical. But truth, unlike words, remains unchanging. What was truth in the
Apostolic
Church
is truth today. All Christians should readily admit that the test of any
principle of the Christian faith is to present it to the mind of the early
Christian Church. It is certain that for the first nine hundred years at least,
the Christian world was united in a common bond of faith.

What was Christ’s Church like, then, before words like "schism",
"heretic", "sect" were used by Christians to describe one
another? We know that the Church was one, that its faith was Catholic in the
sense best described by St. Vincent of Lerinz, "Such teaching is truly
Catholic as has been believed in all places, at all times, and by all the
faithful." By this test of universality, antiquity, and consent, all
controversial points in belief must be tried.

Until the year 1054 AD when the first unhappy division took place, the Church
was as it should be, "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic." What
happened after the division of course appears differently to the mind of every
individual and the truth becomes hard to discern. It is safe to say then, that
the only way of proving the truth of any contemporary interpretation of
Christianity, is to submit it to the examination of the common mind of the
Christian Church before its division took place. Was it believed by all
Christians everywhere, at all times before the year 1054 A.D.? -- is the test
every question of faith should meet.

The Old Catholic Movement maintains that the obvious basis of reuniting the
several divisions of the Christian Church is the common acceptance of the Faith
of the entire Church prior to the first division in the year 1054 A.D. from
whence all the familiar divisions of today ultimately stem. This theory admits
that the 16th century Reformation is not principally responsible for the
"unhappy divisions" that beset the Christian religion in the western
world.

What caused the first division was not a point of faith so much as it was a
matter of jurisdiction and administration. History reveals that the early Church
was governed by the Apostolic authority vested in all the bishops. Matters of
faith and morals affecting the whole Church were brought before an Ecumenical
Council (of which there were seven universally accepted) over which the five
great bishops of Christendom presided. These bishops, whose Sees represented the
important cities of
Jerusalem
,
Antioch
, Constantinople,
Alexandria
and
Rome
, were known as patriarchs in whom the Church of the ancients recognized its
sovereignty.

If we are to single out the primary cause of the first division of this
Church, it would be the deeply rooted objection of the Patriarch of Rome to this
particular theory of Church government.
Rome
maintained that they and their successors held supreme authority over all
Christendom as spiritual heirs of St. Peter, whom, they held, was the first
Bishop of Rome and to whom, they contended, the "keys to the kingdom of
heaven" were alone divinely entrusted. The four patriarchs of the Church in
the East maintained the traditional belief in the administration of Christ’s
Church, offering for the sake of unity the title "primus inter pares"
(first amongst equals) to the Roman bishop.

But with the Church of the West developing a strong belief that a kind of
primacy resided in the Roman bishop by divine enactment, the breach widened into
an open division and henceforth the Christian Church in the East and in the West
was to be distinct and divided. In the East, to this day, the patriarchal theory
of the Church’s government is held, while in the West the emphasis on the
personal supremacy of the Pope over all Christendom was gradually increased from
the year 1054 until the final definition of Papal infallibility was decreed in
the Vatican Council of A.D. 1870 as a dogma which all Christians were bound to
accept as an article of faith.

In explanation of the abridged nature of these earlier chapters, the writer
would plead his intention of placing before the reader’s eye as a picture, as
vivid and complete as possible on the state of the early Church, without
touching in a controversial spirit upon the sore points of its later history.
But since it has been necessary to go this far to bring to light the basic
reason for the existence of the Old Catholic Movement, let it be noted, that
only the salient points of early history are touched upon, and those wishing to
enter more fully into details of the causes that led to the division of
Christianity are asked to refer to the pages of ordinary church histories.

What is important for our immediate purpose is merely to establish the basis
upon which a school of thought regarding the Church’s administration developed
within the Roman Church, flourishing time and again in such celebrated and
glorious figures as Savanarola, Paulo Sarpl, the Scholars of Port-Royal, the
so-called "Jansenists", the Church of Holland and others, to develop
finally in the twilight of the nineteenth century into what came to be known as
"primitive" or "old" Catholicism.

We are left free now in the following chapters to touch upon the stirring and
romantic history of the Port-Royalists of France, the rise of the movement
within the Church of Rome and finally the dramatic Vatican Council which
culminated in the definite formation of the present Old Catholic movement whose
purpose is not a new reformation from without, but a quiet restoration of the
Christian Church to its original state from within.

From 1054 A.D. to the very threshold of our own times, the question of
defining the extent of Papal authority continually occupied the growing Catholic
Church in the West. A struggle was manifested in two distinct schools of
thought.

One school of thought maintained the belief that the supreme teaching
authority within the Church rested in the Ecumenical Councils on the ground that
all Catholic Bishops have equal pastoral authority.

The other school in opposition advanced the principle called
"ultra-montanism," which maintained that the Pope was above the
authority of the Councils.

During the 17th Century "ultra-montanism" found its principle
resistance in the
Church
of
France
, and its principle support among the Jesuits. The Faculty of the Sorbonne
proved to be a great bulwark against ultra-montane theories and championed
scholars maintaining the French cause.

The entire body of French clergy drew up a declaration in 1682 A.D. in order
to protect the canonical rights of the
French
Church
against the encroachments of the Ultra-montanists. In writing this declaration
of 1682, the French clergy were mindful of the primitive teaching of the
Catholic Church, restated by the Council of Constance (1414-1418), which
decreed, it had "its authority immediately from Christ, and everyone,
whatever his rank or position, even if it be the Pope himself, is bound to obey
it in all things which pertain to the Faith, to the healing of schism, and to
the general renewal of the Church. "This document," a contemporary
historian says, "is an important document in the history of Old
Catholicism." Its contents may be summarized under the following
subheadings: (1) The Pope could not release subjects from obedience to temporal
power. The authority received by the Church from God is spiritual, not temporal
(i.e., "My Kingdom is not of this world."). (2) That the Decrees of
the Council of Constance remain in full force in the Church. The Papal authority
in no way affects the perpetual and immovable strength of the Decrees of the
Council. (3) The independence of the
French
Church
must be maintained -- the authority of the Apostles must be exercised in
accordance with the mind of the whole Church. (4) That the decisions of the Pope
are not infallible -- his "judgment is not irreversible until confirmed by
the consent of the whole Church" (Jervis, Hist. Ch. France ii.p. 50).

The Declaration, signed by 34 Archbishops and Bishops and formulated under
the guidance of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, reaffirmed the position which had at
all times been dear to the
French
Church
. This document became a norm for the conduct of relations between the National
churches of
Northern Europe
and the Roman Curia.

Italian Ultra-montane writers attacked the French clergy. In response, Bishop
Bossuet wrote a "Defense of the Declaration" which so powerfully
influenced belief in the principles held by the
French
Church
that his learned opponent, Cardinal Orsi, advised the Roman Theologians to
abandon ultra-montanism as a "hopeless" cause.

However, the most powerful factor in preserving the "Old" Catholic
tradition in
France
was the support of such scholars as Arnauld, Pascal, Cyran, Tillimont and
others. They carried the standards of
Port Royal
, the envy even today of scholars, theologians, educators, and churchmen.

Francois Mauriac, whose judgment of Port Royal is obviously biased by
personal predilections, nevertheless admits, in his recent book on
Port Royal
’s most celebrated son, that "after three centuries Blaise Pascal is
still alive. His slightest thought troubles or charms or irritates, but he is
understood instantly. Pascal is the brother of all sinners, of all converts, of
all wounded men whose wounds may reopen at any instant, of all whom Christ has
pursued from afar, and who trust only in His love."

Port Royal in France was not only the vessel containing the mental and
spiritual giants of its day, but it proved a major influence in preserving for
our time the Tradition of the Church, that her children believe, and that the
Saints knew, loved, lived, and died for.

To trace the origin of
Port Royal
, around which the storms of Church and State revolved in the 17th century in
the controversy touching on the growth of Papal power, it is necessary to go
back to the year 1204. At that date an Abbey was founded at the head of the
Valley of the Rhodon near Chevreuse (about 18 miles southwest of
Paris
) by Eudes de Sully, Bishop of Paris, and Mathilde de Garlande, to ensure
prayers for the safe return of Mathilde’s husband, Mathieu De Marly De
Montmorenci, who had gone to take part in the Fourth Crusade. The site of the
Abbey was known as
Port Royal
, and it is said its name derived from a corruption of the low Latin
"porra" which described the ponds and "mares" which abounded
in the neighborhood.

The community of nuns of Port Royal flourished during the 14th and 15th
centuries and attained certain fame, but in the 16th century the religious wars
and the war with
England
tended to relax the discipline of all religious houses--and
Port Royal
did not escape from this infection of its religious life. As everywhere, in the
religious houses of the time, the nuns of Port Royal became worldly and the rule
of S. Benedict was forgotten, while for more than thirty years, no sermon had
been preached save at seven or eight professions.

The regeneration of
Port Royal
came about under the guidance of Angelique Arnauld, appointed by a Papal Bull
at the age of 11, in the year 1602, to be Abbess of Port Royal. Taking over the
community which at that time consisted of 10 sisters, Mere Angelique proceeded
to reform it after having been "completely converted" nine years after
her appointment. She succeeded in introducing vows of poverty and seclusion and
re-introduced the teaching work of her Abbey after it had long lain idle. Though
at first these increased austerities caused a rupture with the Arnauld family
and no little trouble with the formerly ease-loving nuns, she was able to
successfully heal all difficulties. Her energy and steadfastness of purpose
overcame all obstacles: she not only won her family to Port Royal, but her
influence made itself felt in other houses and a widespread revival of the
spiritual ideal for which the primitive Cistercians were renowned took place. By
the year 1626
Port Royal
had increased the number of its inhabitants to more than 80.

To escape the unhealthy conditions engendered by the swamp land surrounding
the Abbey, the community was required to take a house in
Paris
to which a body of nuns removed. The two sections of the convent were
thereafter known as Port-Royal de Paris.

About 1636 A.D. a remarkable group of men--physicians, men of letters,
soldiers, scholars and ecclesiasts, influenced by a friend of Port Royal, the
Abbe de S. Cyran, took up their residence at Les Grange, near Port Royal des
Champs, where they resolved to lead a life of self-renunciation and consecration
and took for their rallying cry "Thought allied with faith", making
redemption of souls their mission. These men were the Solitaires. They took no
vows, but systematically divided their time between religious exercises,
literary pursuits, teaching and manual labor.

The Solitaires were regarded as forming a joint community with the nuns of
Port Royal
, among whom many had relatives. Among these men were Antoine Arnauld, Lemaistre
de Sacy, Arnauld d’Andilly, Nicole and subsequently, Blaise Pascal, Lancelot
and others. These men conducted schools called "Les Petites escoles de
Port Royal
" which soon acquired a great and undying reputation for anticipating in
many ways modern ideas of education. In the hands of these men lay the spiritual
destiny of "Old" Catholicism in
France
. Of them, the saintly princess, Madame Elizabeth, a sister of Louis XVI, wrote,
"Their theology apart, that I do not understand, these gentlemen of
Port Royal
were holy persons. What a life they led, compared to ours!"

The Abbey of Port Royal was more than a convent of reformed nuns and the
community of "Solitaires" more than a band of holy men gathered
together from every walk of life to give themselves wholly to God. They had
ideas which, supported by brilliant minds and holy lives, were considered
dangerous to the pretensions of ultra-montanists, scholastics and ecclesiastical
politicos. Saint Cyran had worked with Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, in a
study of the early Fathers in an attempt to restore vitality to the lifeless
theology of the time and restore the Church to the simplicity and purity of
primitive times. Jansen’s work culminated in the publication of "Petrus
Augustinus" in which their theories, based on the writings of
St. Augustine
, were expounded. Saint Cyran, however, continued to apply these theories to
practice in life and the Port Royal Solitaires supported him. The Jesuits,
having been severely censured in the "Augustinus" as fostering the
ancient heresy of Pelagianism in the Church, exerted all their efforts to have
it condemned. Five propositions were presented to the Pope as having been
contained in the writings of Jansen and the request that they be condemned
heretical. Though the Jesuits’ plea was heeded, historians still doubt the
likelihood that the propositions were ever contained in Jansen’s works. The
Jesuits also coined the word "Jansenist" as a term of reproach to the
Port Royalists. A formulary was drawn up in which the five propositions were
condemned and the Port Royalists were requested to sign it under pain of
expulsion and suppression.

Richelieu, who had not been able to win Saint Cyran, whom he considered the
"most learned man in
Europe
," to his political aims by offers of ecclesiastical preferments--in all
five Sees which Saint Cyran refused--determined to use the situation to put him
out of the way. Through the joint attacks of her adversaries
Port Royal
suffered. Saint Cyran was imprisoned on a vague charge of heresy. The nuns and
Solitaires, refusing to sign the formulary that they were convinced was a false
statement were several times dispersed, but their powerful defense in the
brilliant language of Arnauld, the stirring writings of Pascal, and the saintly
lives of the nuns and recluses held off the fatal day of the Abbey’s complete
destruction and earned them undying fame. To the doors of
Port Royal
flocked people hungry for spiritual nourishment in a desert of theological
bickerings and dead scholasticism to find the peace of God even I the midst of
these struggles. Marie de Gonsagne, later Queen of Poland, had a lodging at
Port Royal
and subsequently offered the community a refuge from their persecutors in her
kingdom.

But the Port Royalists did not flee fro the ordeal. Saint Cyran, upon the
death of
Richelieu
, was released from prison only to die shortly afterwards from the effects of
the confinement. Mere Angelique died in 1661 in the midst of the battle.
Jacqueline Pascal, her successor remained steadfast in vindicating
Port Royal
of an unjust calumniation. Writing of conditions to a friend at that time, she
says, "I know that it is not for women to defend the Faith, but when
Bishops are as timorous as women, it befits women to be as brave as
Bishops." Antoine Arnauld was stripped of his scholarly honors and died, an
exile, in
Holland
. The combined strength of the enemy prevailed in time and the little schools
were suppressed, the Solitaires dispersed, the nuns imprisoned, and finally in
1709, the Abbey was completely destroyed even to the desecration of the graves.
It was said of the Port-Royalists that they led the lives of strict puritans yet
were nonetheless Catholics who bowed neither before King nor Prelate in the
defense of their Catholic faith. When a worldly prelate, friendly to
Port Royal
was described as a Jansenist, it was said of him, "What, he a Jansenist?
That is impossible. To be a Jansenist one must first be a Christian."

The ruin of
Port Royal
was a tragic and inhuman episode in the history of the ascendancy of the
ultramontane party in the Catholic Church. The destruction of the abbey had been
the avowed purpose of its detractors, the Jesuits, who, with the consent of King
Louis XIV, thought thereby to put an end to what they contemptuously termed
"Jansenism." They failed in this object. The celebrated hymnographer
and historian of the Church of England, John Mason Neale in his book, "The
So-Called Jansenists," could say almost 200 years later, "The spirit
of
Port Royal
lived on, and still lives."

Pasquer Quesnel, the last of the so-called "Jansenists" connected
with
Port Royal
, shouldered the mantle of Antoine Arnauld. Quesnel, elevated to the post of
Director of the
Oratorian
School
in
Paris
early in his career, was forced to flee
France
in 1684 with several others. They preferred exile rather than signing an
anti-Jansenist formula which they regarded as a "senseless and
despotic" document and which all members of the Congregation of the Oratory
were required by
Rome
to sign.

In
Brussels
he joined Antoine Arnauld and remained with him until his friend’s death in
1694 and from then on he became the "oracle" of the Port Royalists. In
May 1703 Quesnel was suddenly arrested in
Brussels
and thrown into the prison of the Archbishop of Malines who had obtained an
order for his arrest from King Philip V of
Spain
. With the help of a Spaniard, who contrived to make a hole in the prison wall
sufficiently large to admit the egress, Quesnel escaped.

Quesnel fled to
Amsterdam
where, after the fall of
Port Royal
, he continued with friends to fulfill the mission of conscientious Catholics.
He died at
Amsterdam
in 1709 in time to witness the seeds of his mission bearing fruit. For in
Holland
, the means whereby Catholics cut off from the Church of Rome could cling to the
Catholic Faith and maintain its primitive doctrine was at hand.

The French cause upheld by the Gallican Bishops against the growing claims of
the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, was to be crushed under the heel of Napoleon, who
proved an unwitting ally of ultra-montanists. However, the Tradition and
Episcopate of the Catholic Church was to be carried on through the Church of
Holland and preserved until the day when the ultimate goal of ultra-montanism,
the Declaration of Papal Infallibility, was to enslave all Roman Catholics to
the will of a few and leave a portion of the Catholic flock, that adhered to the
old and unchangeable faith of the Christian Church, without shepherds.

Here the intervention of the Hand of God, through the agency of Dominique
Mary Varlet, Roman Catholic Bishop of Ascalon, forged the link by which Old
Catholics the world over were to receive an Episcopate of undeniable Catholic
authority and Apostolic succession.

The
Church
of
Holland
, which had provided shelter for many of the clergy of
France
from the persecution of the Jesuits, was itself to be the scene of the next
stage of the struggle. With the rise of ultra-montanism the traditional right of
the
Church
of
Holland
to elect its own Archbishop was in jeopardy. The Metropolitan Chapter of the
parish
Church
at
Utrecht
had, from the beginning, possessed the right of electing its own Archbishop who
exercised all ecclesiastical authority over the affairs of the Roman Catholic
Church in
Holland
.

In 1697, exercising this customary privilege, the Chapter elected Peter
Codde, their Vicar General and already Bishop of Sebaste, as their Archbishop.
The Pope would not recognize this election and substituted a person of his own
appointment, Theodore de Cock, who was expelled by the Chapter. But with the
death of Archbishop Codde the See of Utrecht became vacant and Rome, refusing to
accept Bishops elected by the Metropolitan Chapter, adopted a policy of
withholding the Episcopate from the Church of Holland in the hope that the
independent Church of Holland would submit to the will of the papacy or die a
natural death.

Bishop Varlet, a French refugee in
Holland
, at the request of the Chapter, braved Papal censure by successively
consecrating Cornelius Steenoven (1724) and Cornelius Jan Burchman (1725) as
Archbishops of Utrecht. The celebrated canonist, Van Espen, defended the rights
of the Chapter to elect its own Archbishop. The
Church
of
Utrecht
continues to this day in preserving an independent Catholic Episcopate in
Holland
whose validity has never been questioned by Roman Catholic authorities.

There were Catholics in countries other than
France
and
Holland
that opposed the growth of the new interpretation of Papal authority. In
England
and
Ireland
opposition to ultra-montanism was great. Vigorous attempts to
"Romanize" these countries were inaugurated and a clear distinction
was made between "Catholics" and "Romanists."
"Catholics" frankly committed themselves to the rejection of Papal
infallibility. In 1780 a committee of Roman Catholics in
England
declared that of the total number of priests in
England
, estimated at 360, the whole body of clergy including their four Bishops, with
the exception of 110 Jesuits, opposed ultra-montanism.

William E. Gladstone in his book "Vaticanism" quotes Bishop Baine,
a Roman Catholic Bishop in
England
in 1822, as saying, "Bellarmine and some other theologians, chiefly
Italians, have believed the Pope infallible when proposing ‘ex cathedra’ an
article of faith. But in
England
and
Ireland
I do not believe that any Catholic maintains the infallibility of the
Pope." The Pastoral Address of the Irish Bishops to the clergy and laity in
1826 declared that, "It is not an article of the Catholic Faith, neither
are they thereby required to believe that the Pope is infallible." An
official Catechism of the English Roman Catholics is the famous Keenan’s
Catechism in which, previous to the year 1870, the following question and answer
were contained. "(Q) Must not Catholics believe the Pope in himself to be
infallible? (A) This is a Protestant invention: it is no article of the Catholic
faith."

The ultra-montanists hoped to eliminate this belief amongst the Roman
Catholics of Great Britain and
Ireland
by a process of "Romanizing." Cardinal Wiseman "the instrument
under God to Romanize
England
" and Manning, his successor, "he could not go too far in conceptions
designated ultramontaine" were especially selected by
Rome
, over the objections of the local clergy, for this purpose. "Thus by the
oppression of independent thought and a rewriting of history, imposed by
Romanized Bishops upon a reluctant community," says a recent historian,
"a process of ‘changing’ the thought of English and Irish Catholics was
attempted." These attempts were resisted by Catholics and were unsuccessful
even to the time of the Vatican Council in 1870 when several Irish and English
Bishops openly opposed the new theories of papal prerogatives.

In
Germany
, too, under the celebrated theologian, Ignatius von Dolinger, and on the
continent everywhere, "old" Catholics were strong and numerous enough
to resist the encroachments of this terrifying novelty, little dreaming that the
proposition so much dreaded by Catholics everywhere would be considered
seriously enough to be proclaimed as a article of Faith binding upon all the
faithful.

Up to the eve of the famous Vatican I Council we have shown, in the preceding
chapters, the uninterrupted existence within the Roman Church of "old"
Catholics struggling always to maintain an unmutilated faith in the Catholic
Church. But with the curtain rising on the first Vatican Council, we enter the
final phase of their struggles, a period that is, from any point of view, the
most critical in the history of the papacy. On the 18th of July 1870 the
transition of Roman Catholicism into a new phase of Catholicism took place, to
leave only a remnant of the faithful clinging to what the Church had always,
everywhere believed--the "old" Catholic Faith, unchanged, yet
progressively revealing.

Sensing the growing intellectual freedom of Catholics everywhere, the
Ultramontanists felt that only by an absolute dictatorship over the thoughts and
conscience of the faithful could
Rome
regain its former power over the entire occidental world -- a power weakened by
the great Protestant Reformation. The establishment of such a dictatorship they
sought, and obtained, through the agency of the first Vatican Council of 1870.

Up to the time of this Council the personal infallibility of the Pope was
considered nothing more than a "pious opinion" held by a faction
within the Church. The larger part of the Catholic Church so little believed in
it, that when Protestants reproached them with this superstition, Roman
theologians regarded it as a calumny. The Vatican Council was a bold step in an
attempt to make what had formerly been regarded as a ‘Protestant invention’
into the keystone of the Catholic Faith.

Pius IX, an aging pope without much theological culture, who had been
inspired by the Jesuits into sensing his own personal infallibility,
accordingly, to secure the official recognition of the Church by a so-called
General Council in this matter, summoned the Vatican Council to open on the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8th December
1870). On that very day, fifteen years earlier, Pius IX had himself proclaimed
this new dogma, and a fervid prelate, who had just returned from a visit to
Lourdes
, assured him: "The Pope has said to Mary, ‘You are immaculate.’ And
now Mary answers the Pope, "And you are infallible."

In the Vatican Council the representatives of the great majority of Roman
Catholics, the German, French, Austrian, English, Czech, Irish and American
bishops, oddly enough formed the minority. The great majority was to be found in
Italian Bishops representing numerous diminutive dioceses and in titular Bishops
without dioceses, whose expenses, Cardinal Schwarzenburg said, "the Pope
was obliged to pay entire, even to their very socks, so that they voted blindly
at his bidding. The minority had little opportunity of voicing their opposition
to the creation of the new dogma. An order of business described by a Roman
Catholic Archbishop who was present at the Council as "a cursed congeries
of pitfalls," precluded all free discussion.

If the minority could not be heard in Council and wished to have a memoir of
their opposition printed, the printing houses of
Rome
were forbidden to serve them. Pamphlets mailed from out of the country were
sequestered and never delivered. Anyone answering the Pope with an appeal to
Christian Tradition was silenced with "I am tradition."

In a last minute appeal to the Pope, when several bishops were allowed an
audience, the proud bishop of
Mainz
, Baron von Kotteler, fell on his knees weeping to implore the Pope not to
formulate the fatal dogma of his own infallibility. Finally, when the dogma was
met with its first vote, eighty-eight voted against it, ninety-one bishops
refrained from voting, and sixty-two voted yea only conditionally. The
opposition departed from
Rome
before a second vote was taken rather than be called upon either to support the
hated dogma or personally offend the Pope by voting negatively.

With all opposition dispersed the ultramontanists sealed their triumph in the
final vote with still two negative voices on July 18th, 1870. On that day, in
the midst of one of the fiercest storms to break across the city of Rome,
accompanied by thundering and lightning, while rain poured in through the broken
glass of the roof near him, Pius IX rose in the darkness, and by the aid of the
feeble light of a candle, read the momentous affirmation of his own
infallibility. "We declare it to be an article of faith that the Roman Pope
possesses infallibility in any doctrine relating to faith and morals. If anyone
shall oppose this our decision, which God forbid, let him be accursed,"

The storm has been variously interpreted by friend or foe, as comparable to
the solemn legislation of
Mt.
Sinai
or as tokens of Divine displeasure and approaching desolation. But whatever
constructions were placed upon the circumstances surrounding the birth of the
new dogma, the
Western
Church
was indisputably bound to a new interpretation of its Catholicity. Tradition
and Scripture were no longer necessary. Instead, every Christian under pain of
being accursed was hereafter to know that on any matter concerning his Faith, he
would have to be content with the answer "the Pope has spoken, the cause is
ended."

With the declaration of the doctrine of papal infallibility at the closing
session of the First Vatican Council in 1870, a new condition of faith was to be
imposed on all Catholics. As far as the ultramontanists were concerned, the
question that stirred men’s hearts within the church for centuries past was
now settled--in their favor. "The Pope had spoken" indeed, but the
cause was by no means ended. In fact, the real struggle was now taking shape.

There were able and learned members of the Roman Catholic Church to whom it
was impossible to reconcile the new dogma with what they had always believed.
The Catholic consciousness of early ages presented a theory out of which papal
infallibility could never legitimately grow. The primitive theory, as the
Councils of the Church made plain, placed final authority in the ecumenical
council of all the bishops of the entire church and the transference of this
authority from the entire body of the church to one individual was no true
Catholic development at all, but a dislocation of the original constitution of
the Church.

If most of the Bishops were coerced or threatened by official intimidation to
accept the new belief, there were others that officialdom could not touch nor
frighten. Several Bishops refused to publish the new dogma within their diocese.
In
America
, Archbishop Kenrick of
St. Louis
, whose speech against the new dogma was suppressed in Council, expressed the
unspoken feelings of many of the bishops in the following memorable sentence.
"Notwithstanding my submission, I shall never teach the doctrine of Papal
Infallibility so as to argue from Scripture or tradition in its support, and
shall leave to others to explain its compatibility with the facts of
ecclesiastical history to which I referred in my reply. As long as I may be
permitted to remain in my present station I shall confine myself to
administrative functions which I can do the more easily without attracting
attention, as for some years past I have seldom preached."

But once again if Bishops were to prove as "timorous as women" in
the face of official displeasure, then it remained for theologians and scholars
to defend the faith. Such men as von Shulte, Reinkins, Lord Acton, von Dollinger
and other distinguished scholars of northern
Europe
continued in outspoken and fearless opposition to the new Faith of the Roman
curia.

A revulsion to the new dogma arose like a swift tide amongst lay-folk and
clergy throughout northern
Europe
where the Roman doctrine had to be enforced, if at all, with persecution where
Episcopal persuasion proved fruitless.

In
Bavaria
public agitation rose high and priests refused to accept or publish the new
Vatican
decrees in their parishes. As early as three weeks after the close of the
Council more than a thousand Rhenish Roman Catholics at
Konigwinter
,
Germany
, united in the declaration that "they did not accept the decrees in regard
to the absolute power and personal infallibility of the pope but rejected them
as contradicting the traditional faith of the Church."

Shortly before this, forty-three professors and teachers of the University of
Munich, not members of the theological faculty, drew up a similar declaration,
and this was followed in April 1871 by the "Munich Museum" address
with eighteen thousand signers, which went to the government, its purpose being
"to prevent the adoption in church and school of the new dogma and to
revise the relations of church and state."

These lay-folk looked to brave men for leadership who now came to the front
in the struggle for the restoration of the ancient faith. In
Germany
Professors Michelis, Reinkins and von Schulte, to whom were added, from
Switzerland
, Munsigner and Herzog, arose to champion the cause. The problem they faced was
an enormous one. The Roman Church had not only cut itself in two but it had also
cut one part off from tradition and the Scriptures.

The actual rebuilding of the church was far more difficult than the creation
of thousand-voiced protests. How should it take shape? These men, pious
Catholics, inflamed with the passion for truth, desired to remain where they
were. For this very reason genuine Catholicism, not the ultra-montanist, but the
ideal Catholicism of the Church as it had always, everywhere been known was the
cherished hope of their souls and the pattern after which they wanted to build.
Irrevocably outlawed by the Roman Church it was not to take form outside of that
body and its destiny lay in their hands.

In this sense, the Munich Congress, made up of three hundred delegates from
Germany
,
Austria
, and
Switzerland
, with numerous guests from all Christian lands of the earth, as early as
September 1871 made out this distinct program: "We firmly hold to the old
Catholic Faith as attested by tradition and the Scriptures as also to Catholic
worship."

They rejected the newly created dogmas of Pius IX, including that of the
immaculate conception of Mary, and further declared, "We aim, with the
cooperation of theological and canonical science, at a reform of the church
which, conceived in the spirit of the ancient church, shall remove the existing
defects and abuses, and in particular meet the just wishes of the Catholic
people for constitutionally regulated participation in church affairs."

In
Cologne
,
Germany
, the following year, another congress under the direction of Dr. von Dollinger
went still further in a practical direction. Under the lead of Dr. von Schulte
the determinative features of the old Catholic church order were fixed. The
Bishop was to have all rights common to his office, but the clergy and laity
were given a voice in the direction of legislation and discipline. The Bishop
was to be presiding officer of the Council but elected by it. No pastor was to
be appointed who was not first acknowledged by the members of the local parish.
No taxes for dispensation and appointments were to be raised. These formed the
fundamental principles of the movement, apart from its allegiance to the
traditional faith of the Church, which in opposition to "Roman" or
"
Vatican
" Catholicism began to take form ecclesiastically under the name "Old
Catholic

In
Germany
,
Austria
, and
Switzerland
reaction amongst faithful Catholics to the new
Vatican
decrees were swift. Entire parish communities refused to accept the new decrees
and joined together in common councils to reaffirm their faith in the Scriptures
and the authentic Catholic Tradition of the Church and to decide on their future
course.

Under brilliant leadership the movement rose to meet the challenge of
persecution and intimidation which its larger erring sister church of Rome now
leveled at it. Priests were cut off from their pensions unless they subscribed
to the new dogma of Papal Infallibility which soon became known amongst them as
the "hunger dogma." Boycott and social ostracism and even the arm of
the state were employed by the infuriated ultramontanists in their attempts to
force the submission of the recalcitrant Catholic population to their wishes.
Against all this the conscientious faith of thousands of earnest Christians
stood firm.

Though these Catholics preserved the faith as they had always believed it,
the question that was not fearfully evident to the bishopless flock was how to
continue the succession of this faith for unborn generations. It was necessary
with the establishment of the Old Catholic Church order and its independent
government that a bishop be chosen. But how could a legitimate bishop be
obtained, since according to Catholic conception, such a one could be
consecrated only by another legitimate bishop?

Here the
River
of
History
, which now and again flows wide only to break off into different channels, now
flowed together again. The Catholic Church of Holland came to the aid of the Old
Catholic Movement. From the time when the pope and the Jesuits had first
attempted to subjugate it, the
Church
of
Holland
had withstood her trials through the years, firm in its position and preserving
its sacred badge of Apostleship in the legitimate Catholic succession of her
bishops.

The Dutch Archbishop, Loos, in 1872, had helped the German Old Catholics with
confirmation and was willing to consecrate their bishop, but it was necessary
first for the movement to have the recognition of the state. Dr. von Schulte
applied to the Prussian Government and received Royal recognition, as a
Catholic, for the bishop to be elected, as well as a grant of 48,000 marks for
the expenses of the bishop and his administration. Old Catholicism, without this
recognition of the state, would have been, in the eyes of many European peoples,
a sect, and it would have meant a renunciation on the part of the Old Catholic
movement of its legal standing and its right to the same support which the Roman
Church enjoyed if it had not sought this recognition. With this accomplished the
delegates of the German congregations, both clerical and lay, in the manner of
the ancient Church in the chapel of the City Hall of Cologne June 4th, 1873,
unanimously elected Professor D. Reinkins, of Bonn, as their future Bishop. As
Archbishop Loos had just died, Bishop Heykamp of
Deventer
, consecrated the first Old Catholic Bishop for
Germany
.

In
Switzerland
in 1876 Bishop Herzog was consecrated Bishop of the Old Catholic Movement
there. Thus the scattered fragments of Christ’s Church were gathered together.
In time the movement developed sufficiently in other parts of the world to
warrant the necessity of Episcopal supervision and gradually the jealously
guarded Catholic Episcopate came to bless these faithful children of the
Catholic Church of Christ in increasing numbers everywhere.

In
Austria
,
Czechoslovakia
,
Italy
,
Switzerland
,
France
,
Yugoslavia
and
Poland
the movement grew and took root and Bishops were consecrated at
Utrecht
,
Holland
, for almost all these countries.

Out of the hard struggles of countless intrepid little bands of Catholic
priests and laymen all the elements within the Church that rebelled against the
corruption of its faith and realized the original Christian Ideal of the one
Flock of Christ, were drawn together and, if at first in the shape of a small
model only, assumed the form of the ancient Church again.

But the greater works of this small church were only now to begin even if its
martyrs and saints, the progenitors in small numbers through the ages, lay in
eternal sleep. A new spiritual impetus, an evangelical Catholic spirit was to be
borne on the first winds of the twentieth century as they swept, first across
Poland
, then through
England
,
France
, the Balkans, and thence to
America
, to bring a new sense of spiritual freedom with the old and unchanging truths
of Christianity--born to set the souls of all people free.

In
England
a movement began in 1908 which resulted in the formation of the Old Catholic
Church in
England
. In that year the distinguished English priest, Dr. Arnold Harris Mathew, de
jure Earl of Llandoff, who had left the Roman Church, was consecrated by the
Archbishop of Utrecht assisted by all the continental Old Catholic Bishops, at
the parish Church of Saint Gertrude,
Utrecht
, on April 28th, and placed in charge of the English mission. On
Saint Paul
’s Day, 1911, he was elected Archbishop and Metropolitan of Great Britain.

The Archbishop and his little flock in
England
soon found themselves in double danger. Added to the natural differences with
their former brethren in the Roman Church was a campaign of persecution directed
by certain elements among the Anglicans of the state Church of England,
described by Dr. Willibroad Beyschleg, Profession of the university of Holland,
and a noted Old Catholic historian, as "those who emphatically desire to be
‘catholic’ but are at the same time wholly out of sympathy with Old
Catholics." They were a small group of ritualistic churchmen of the
established
English
Church
"on the way to
Rome
," while the Old Catholics were "on the way from
Rome
."

Certain unprincipled elements of this "Anglo-Catholic" group
exerted pressure on the
Dutch
Church
to disavow the English Old Catholics, but without result. At one time they
intended to besmirch the English Archbishop’s character by elaborating on a
statement made by a Roman Catholic editor that Bishop Mathew’s credentials to
the
Dutch
Church
contained false statements, but the Bishops of Holland, after a thorough
investigation themselves vindicated Bishop Mathew. The Roman priest himself
recalled the original statement, saying that since he made it he had satisfied
himself by a personal investigation that it was groundless.

The clique of English churchmen continued to use this disreputable stratagem
against the Old Catholics in the English speaking world even after Bishop
Mathew’s death. Bishop Mathew, however, maintained a high standard of
Christian tolerance and continued his work, unmoved by the persistent noisiness
of his detractors who nonetheless caused him much pain.

As evidence of their confidence in Archbishop Mathew, the Dutch Bishops had
him participate in every consecration of
Utrecht
establishing a new Episcopate on the Continent of Europe until his death in
1919. Bishop Mathew assisted at the Consecration of Bishop Jan Michael Kowalski
and two assistant Bishops for the Old Catholic Church in
Poland
which from that period on was to have close historical and ecclesiastical
relations with English-speaking Old Catholics.

A noted author and historian, Bishop Mathew had an excellent knowledge of the
Orthodox Church and established the most cordial relations between the English
Old Catholics and the Patriarchal See of Antioch through his Eminence the Most
Reverend Archbishop Gearrasimos Messara of Beruit, Syria, who on August 5th,
1911, received the Old Catholics under Bishop Mathew into union and full
communion with the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. Thus a genuine and practical rapprochement
between the Catholics of the East and of the West was for the first time
established after a breach which had lasted almost 10 centuries.

What distinguished the scholarly Archbishop Mathew and the Episcopate he
established in Scotland and America from that of the continental Old Catholics
was his insistence on the inviolable Episcopal authority of each national body
of Old Catholics. This had been in the minds of the original Old Catholic
congresses, but the German Episcopate, because of its preponderance of numbers
and wealth attempted to create a small hierarchical system patterned on the
Roman administration with the Archbishop of Utrecht in the position of ranking
prelate or "little pope." The English Old Catholics, seeing in this
the possibilities of the former mistake of the Western Church with a Germanic,
instead of an Italian, spiritual protectorate over the whole Christian world,
restated the original Old Catholic principles of autonomy and have received the
support of their Orthodox friends in this respect.

Bishop Mathew’s personal contribution to the Old Catholic Movement can be
summed up as a broadening of the Catholic mind to an acceptance of the necessity
of the unifying of Christ’s Church on the basis of the original tenets of the
Christian Faith as it was once believed by all Christians everywhere, and the
recognition that this can only be accomplished by complete cooperation with
Christians of the Eastern Churches, whose proximity in language, in tradition,
and in mind with the early Christians, makes them the ideal vehicle.

After Bishop Mathew’s death the small body of Old Catholics in
England
remained without legitimate Episcopal supervision of their own, and until a
short while ago the Church remained in the protection of the Episcopate of the
Old Catholic Church in
Poland
. Now, cut off from their Mother-house by the European War, the English Old
Catholics have placed themselves under the jurisdiction of an American Old
Catholic Archbishop.

By far, one of the most important early 19th century events in the
development of the Old Catholic Movement has been the Mariavite*
Order in Poland. The nucleus of this movement was a community of nuns, founded
in 1893 and organized under the Rule of Saint Francis for the promotion of
asceticism and the moral purification of the
Polish
Church
. These nuns were teachers in the parochial schools of
Poland
and greatly influenced the lives of the clergy and laity in whatever part of
the nation they ministered. An order of priests, observing the Franciscan rule
was added to them and in 1909 there were 68 priests and a large number of
students ready for ordination.

These two communities were solemnly bound by an understanding that their work
was to begin with a moral regeneration amongst their own kind within the Church
-- the clergy and religious orders. From the first they were actively opposed by
the Polish Jesuits and at last an order came from
Rome
that they were to be dissolved. When they refused to break up their community
life, they were formally condemned in April 1906, and in December 1906, all
their members and adherents cut off from the rites of the Roman Church.

A period of bitter persecution set in, but somehow they managed to keep
together and increase their numbers. The Polish peasants were stirred up against
the "Mariaviten" and their woman leader, "The Little
Mother," to such a degree that armed attacks were made against the
followers when they gathered together in religious meetings. The Roman
authorities at one time circulated a report that the Sacrament consecrated by
the Mariavite priests became not the Body of Christ, but an Incarnation of the
Devil, and in consequence terrible sacrileges were committed against Mariavites
and several of their churches were burned to the ground.

With the growth of its numbers and in increasing necessity of Episcopal
supervision for its parishes the Order at last decided to ask the Old Catholics
to consecrate a bishop for them. Accordingly the bishop-elect Brother Jan
Michael Kowalski and two of his brethren were sent to the international Old
Catholic Congress in
Vienna
in 1909. Through the great Russian theologian, General Alexander Kireef, they
were introduced to the delegates of the Congress. There, on the last morning of
the meeting, Brother Kowalski stated the ground of his appeal and asked the
prayers and sympathy of the assemblage. The Mariavite priests with their bare
sandal feet and gray habits formed a striking and arresting impression in the
midst of the other delegates and their genuine and simple character won them
many new friends. After careful consultation the Old Catholic Bishops accepted
their application and the first bishop of the Church in
Poland
, Brother-Bishop Jan Michael Kowalski, was consecrated at
Utrecht
,
Holland
, early in October of that year.

For the next several years, the Old Catholic Church in
Poland
had steadily increased. In February and March of 1909 the Minister of the
Interior of the Polish government gave the Mariavite order official state
recognition. Within the parishes, Churches, parsonages, schools, and other
institutions were rapidly built. In the parish of
Lodz
in 1910, where there were already 40,000 Mariavites, four handsome Churches
were built entirely through the efforts, personal and manual, of the clergy and
laity.

Driven by the boycott of their Roman Catholic neighbors to depend more and
more upon their own efforts, the members of the Mariavite movement soon
developed a civil as well as a religious form of community amongst themselves.
They worked and traded with each other, supporting one another, creating their
own industries and soon, by cooperation, they rendered themselves entirely
independent. Cooperation stores in villages and lodging houses in towns were
organized. Hospitals staffed by their own doctors and nurses, orphanages,
schools, homes for the aged, soup kitchens, milk dispensaries, fire departments,
cultural activities, farms of magnificent acreage, factories -- in fact all the
necessary prerequisites of modern living -- were developed and organized within
their own groups and used to serve their neighbors.

Though this social and industrial reorganization greatly improved the
position of the Old Catholics in
Poland
, it had to be accompanied by great personal sacrifices. In one town, Leszno,
where cooperative factories on a large scale -- for bookbinding, shoemaking,
cabinet making, and similar activities -- had been organized, several families
handed over all their property to the community and put their own services
unreservedly at its disposal.

Underlying the power and vitality of this movement which led to wholly new
social groupings and industrial experiments was the ever present guidance of a
strong and inspired leader -- a woman, Mary Francis Felicia, devotedly
acknowledged by all as "Mateszka." Simple and unassuming in manner she
nonetheless provoked a religio-social movement worth the consideration of the
world’s serious minds. She proved to be, in the fullest sense, the
"little mother" of her people.

The *Mariavite Movement was, up to that time, significantly different from
any similar religious manifestation. It is in effect the working out of a
practical application to life of the social significance of the Gospel The
foundress of the movement, the Little Mother, Mary Francis Felicia, believed and
taught that the Kingdom of God on Earth is to be understood as a divinely human
society -- a society in which justice, brotherhood, equality and the general
welfare of all its members prevailed. Basically, the Little Mother established
her theory on the formula that for God’s Kingdom to come on earth His will
must also be done.

The Mariavites believe that the curing of all social ills rests in properly
relating the human element to the spiritual regeneration of family, nation and
society. But since ethical theories and social realignments in themselves are
not enough, they maintain that the "direct action of God" working on
the human spirit is essential. "The direct action of God," they say,
"is fulfilled in the partaking of Holy Communion, which, in the opinion of
the Mariavites, must be the ‘daily bread’ of men and women." In this
sense the entire religious and social life of the Mariavites centers upon the
Holy Eucharist at which the faithful communicate as a means of daily
regenerating the human spirit and as the first step toward the regeneration of
society and the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Christianity, according to the Mariavites, is to be lived. Worship enters
into every field of human activity. Its end and sole purpose cannot be found in
religious gatherings held at stated periods alone. The act of worship, the
liturgy, is an active and motivating experience in the lives of all who take
part in it. During World War II more than 350,000 followers in
Poland
demonstrated the possibility of this life of faith and work even under the
trying exigencies of world conflict.

Oddly enough, women play the important part in this religious movement. It
was first founded by a woman who also directed its social possibilities. The
administration of major communities of the movement in many parts of the country
was in the hands of women. The work of the sisters had been of such beneficial
influence that they have been asked by the populace of many sections to
administer parochial activities. Of the total number of about 1571 religious
workers, including clergy, brothers of the Order and the sisterhood, more than
one thousand of them are women actually engaged in the administration of the
movement. The General Chapter which meets to elect new officers and to decide
the general administrative policy of the movement has an equal representation of
women with votes. The Mother General of the Sisters must take part in the
election of a new Archbishop as well as in all proceedings of the General
Chapter.

The religious workers of the Movement were grouped into three categories.
First there were the priests and members of the brotherhood who lived under the
Rule of Saint Francis. The community of nuns, about 600 in number, compose
another group to which were added about 400 deaconesses under the supervision of
the Mother General. Under the third grouping some 500 [persons following a
modified religious rule, gave their time and energies to the movement. Of this
last number a great many consist of married couples voluntarily devoting their
lives to buttress the work of the clergy and the sisterhood. Joy is a paramount
requisite of a Christian life and the Mariavites everywhere radiate a warm and
becoming mirth.

The zeal of the Movement touched the peasant populations of central
Europe
and awakened a living religious movement amongst them. A Pole wiring of the
effect this movement has on the people says, "From the surrounding
neighborhood of their habitations there would be a flood of thirsty souls eager
for God and His mercy." People when they met the Mariavites turned to God
with such a subsequent change in their mode of life that even the Jews were wont
to say, "What kind of new Christians are these."

The Old Catholic Church under the administration of the Mariavite Order in
Poland
was in every way a distinct and important demonstration of the possibility of a
20th century Christian social order. From
Poland
their influence spread to other parts of the world where in some places it
became well established. Marivavite missions were founded in
Lithuania
,
France
,
England
, South and
North America
.

Mariavites supported themselves with the labor of their own hands and offered
their ministrations freely to all without salaries, mission funds are not a
necessary consideration of the movement., The Church, they would say, is here to
give every assistance to people both for their spiritual and material
well-being; it does not have to take from them. Perhaps it might yet be said of
the Mariavites everywhere in the world, as it was then said of them in
Poland
, "Wherever there is a Mariavite there is neither hunger nor sorrow."

The growth of the Old Catholic Movement in America presents a pattern at once
historically unique and tragic, revealing as it does the unfriendliness with
which its participants were received and the unhealthy persecution which certain
religionists have consistently leveled at it. Here in this land where at last a
free religion was finding expression where such an expression was
constitutionally guaranteed it was regarded with distrust and suspicion by the
more Catholic-minded Protestants who felt the movement to be an
"intrusion" and did everything possible to confuse its people. That
the Old Catholic Church has survived the heart-breaking opposition of certain
denominational Christians to whom she has held out her hands for an expression
of brotherliness and understanding, and that her clergy have continued in their
ministrations, undaunted by the trying circumstances into which the ignorance of
their detractors often placed them, is the more wonderful. The general
sentiments directed against the Old Catholic Movement by those who might have
been its greatest friends was aptly summed up in the words of Frederick Cook
Morehouse, Editor of the Living Church, who wrote an editorial in that paper of
January 26, 1907, concerning the first Old Catholic Bishop, "Consecrated in
1897, Bishop Kozlowski began his Episcopate against the indignant protests of
American churchmen at what was deemed an act of intrusion on the part of his
consecrators. No friendly hand was outstretched to meet him from the
American
Church
(Protestant Episcopal). We had an abundance of sympathy for Old Catholics in
Europe, but none for Old Catholics in
America
." Under this unhappy indictment the Old Catholic Movement was formed under
the leadership of brave men who nonetheless could never comprehend the attitude
of their Christian contemporaries who refused to understand them and yet could
not let them alone to worship in the way their conscience dictated.

Stemming out of the dissatisfaction of several foreign-born groups of Roman
Catholics for the temporal administration of their ecclesiastical superiors the
Old Catholic Movement soon developed in America into three channels each
dominated and limited by its own language. Belgians under the guidance of a
former Roman Catholic, Pere Joseph Rene Vilatte, were centered chiefly in
Wisconsin
near
Green Bay
, where several parishes had been organized. Under Monsignor Jan Francis Tichy
and several assistant clergymen a movement of Czech people with its headquarters
at
Cleveland
,
Ohio
, was in the process of formation as early as 1890 while under Father Kozlowski
in
Chicago
,
Illinois
, the largest group, mostly of Polish extraction was making rapid progress.
Anton Kozlowski had accepted the Old Catholic faith along with 15 other priests
who had left the Roman Church with him to guide the movement amongst American
Poles. He was elected to be their Bishop and in 1897 he was consecrated in
Berne
,
Switzerland
, by Bishop Herzog, who was assisted by Archbishop Gul of
Utrecht
and Bishop Weber of
Bonn
,
Germany
.

At the Old Catholic Congress of Olten, 1904, Bishop Kozlowski was accompanied
by Mgr. Tichy who had been sent to the Old Catholics by the American Czechs as
their Bishop to pray for consecration at their hands. In 1905 Mgr. Tichy
was appointed by Archbishop Gul of
Utrecht
as Episcopal administrator of non-Polish Slavs in the
United States
with the purpose of bringing them over to Old Catholicism and he was
subsequently consecrated as Bishop by Bishop Kozlowski for this work. With the
death of the Polish Bishop in November of 1907, many of the Polish members of
the movement fell into the defection of one of the clergy, Francis Hodur, who
organized a movement now known as the Polish National Reformed Church in
America
.

In the meantime, a group of English-speaking Old Catholics were being
gathered together by the untiring efforts of a former Roman Catholic monk, the
learned Dom Augustine de Angelis (William Harding), who had organized a
community of men devoted to the Religious Rule of S. Benedict at
Waukegan
,
Illinois
. This community along with the missions under its care were received into the
jurisdiction of Bishop Tichy in 1907. On St. Patrick’s Day, 1911, William
Henry Francis, who had been elected Prior of the Community was ordained to the
Priesthood by Bishop Tichy and on April 20th, 1913, he was consecrated Mitred
Abbot. Upon the retirement of Bishop Tichy in 1914, Mgr. Francis was appointed
to take charge of the diocese.

In 1914 Monsignor Francis was elected to be Consecrated Bishop of the Diocese
formerly held by Bishop Tichy whose ill health forced him to give up his duties.
Since by this time relations between the American movement and the Old Catholic
Church in
England
had been closely knit and the strengthening of the bonds existing between them
was desirable the young Bishop-elect was to have gone to
Europe
for his Consecration. But the world war made such an undertaking impossible at
the time and it was not until two years later that the opportunity of
establishing the European Episcopate in
America
presented itself.

In the meantime a Bishop of the Old Catholic Church, consecrated by
Archbishop Mathew of
England
, had arrived in
America
. He was the Right Reverend Bishop de Landas Berghes et de Rache, a prince of
the house of Larraine-Brapant who was consecrated Old Catholic Bishop in
Scotland but whose relations with the Austrian Royal house marked him in Great
Britain for possible internment. At the suggestion of the Anglican Archbishop of
Canterbury
, Bishop de Landas came to
America
late in the year of 1914 with letters of introduction from that English prelate
to several sympathetic Protestant churchmen. He was received with great
cordiality by the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York and was a guest for
more than a year within his diocese. On Tuesday, January 12, 1915, by invitation
of Bishop Greer, then Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, Bishop de Landas
took part with 13 Protestant Episcopal Bishops at the Consecration of the
Reverend Dr. Huse as missionary Bishop in
Cuba
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, at the parish of St. John the Divine in
New York City
. The Reverend W. E. Bentley, an Episcopalian minister, wrote in a current
journal that, "the participation of Bishop de Landas in this event was of
more than usual interest and importance for it was the first time since the
Reformation that a Bishop who is in communion with the Holy Eastern Orthodox
Church and whose Orders are derived directly from Rome has taken part in an
Anglican Consecration."

In the spring of 1916, at the request of the European Old Catholic Bishops,
Bishop de Landas took up residence with the Old Catholic community at Waukegan,
Illinois, and, with the direct authorization of Archbishop Mathew of England, he
consecrated Monsignor William Henry Francis to the Episcopate on October 3rd,
1916, in the community Church in the presence of a large congregation (friends
and relatives of the present writer were also in attendance). Although Bishop de
Landas was received with the greatest cordiality and respect by his many friends
within Protestant communions to whom he always showed the greatest of Christian
brotherliness, he received, as did all English-speaking Old Catholic Bishops,
the implacable enmity of the "
Living
Church
" group within the Protestant Episcopal Church. Hounded by their bitterly
malicious attacks wherever he went, Bishop de Landas, broken spirited and
confused by their constant inconsistencies, at last accepted the haven
generously offered him by a community of Augustian monks at
Villanova
,
Pennsylvania
, where he retired until his death to a life of simplicity and prayer. His
passing away in November of 1920 evoked this written message from the
Augustinian superior to the sorrowing Old Catholic confreres of the Bishop at
Waukegan, Illinois: "I do not know what was published in ‘The Living
Church,’ but while he was with us he edified all by his humble, retiring and
sincere manner of living. He sought no exemptions but performed all his duties
as simply as the youngest and humblest Novice."

With the passing away of Bishop de Landas the weight of responsibility in
administering the Movement was placed entirely in the hands of the young Bishop
Francis of
Waukegan
. This young man had already distinguished himself by the exemplary work he had
conducted in his missions and had earned the good wishes and friendship of many
for the Old Catholic cause. Known to the people of the vicinity in which he
worked and where as a child he came to reside with his family after their
arrival from Nottingham, England, he had forsaken the opportunities of the
business world to minister to the uncared for, exploited immigrants working in
the steel mills of the Middle-West. There in the midst of the despised
"foreigners" his sympathetic understanding of their problems and his
practical attempts to solve them made his mission bountiful in good works. At a
meeting of the Old Catholic clergy in
Chicago
on January 7, 1917, when the Old Catholic Constitution was formally adopted and
incorporated under the name of "The Catholic Church of North America (The
Old Catholic Church in
America
)" Bishop Francis was elected Archbishop and the Metropolitan American See
was established.

Under the guidance of Archbishop Francis the Old Catholic Movement in
America
was freed from the bondage of language limitations. Poles, Lithuanians,
Englishmen, Italians, Frenchmen, etc., were no longer delineated in separate
groups within the movement, but each in his own tongue could hereafter speak to
all the brethren.

From a heterogeneous group of transplanted and isolated foreigners, the Old
Catholic Movement became a cohesive one, thoroughly aware of its responsibility
to the needs of the age. Like the history ht of the making of the American
nation, that of the Old Catholic Movement has been made of up many tongues and
many peoples to offer a spiritual haven of freedom and a home for all who sought
refuge from the oppression of tyranny--and expression of religious liberty
indigenous to the land it serves.

As the Old Catholic Movement combines the tradition of the great spiritual
leaders of the latter ages of the Christian Church it has also effectively
united the factors in Catholic Christendom that Hague untiringly labored to
preserve the first administrative principles of the Apostolic Church--to hold in
violate "the faith once for all delivered to the Saints." The
undaunted spirits of the great Christian revolutionaries, the Port Royalists,
the so-called Jansenists, the Mariavites and many others have served to prove by
their struggle against ecclesiastical intolerance and pharaseeism, that in every
age within the church they loved the same struggle has been manifest in the
lives of but a handful of people at al times--the torch they carried from age to
age many have been dimmed at times but it has always been carried forward, never
dropped, never entirely extinguished. Today their efforts are merged in handfuls
of many people in almost every part of the world to whom the sympathetic hands
of the great Oriental Christian Church lends strength.

Added to the growing Old Catholic Movement in
America
were the independent Portuguese Catholics under the Rt. Reverend Bishop Antonio
Rodriguez of
Massachusetts
in 1917 and the appointment of the Rt. Reverend Joseph Zielonka of
New Jersey
, after his reception into union with several Polish congregations in 1924. The
joint Encyclical the Old Catholic Bishops in America in 1925, in which an
outline of a really Christian society was advocated, met with such approval by
representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church that the Metropolitan John
Bienipotentiary-Delegate of the Holy Synod, of Russia, representing 127 Bishops
and Archbishops in Russia, received the Old Catholic Church in America into
union with that body in the same year. In 1933, under an agreement jointly
entered into, the Orthodox Archbishop of
Prague
and
Czechoslovakia
, Savvatios, under the Orthodox Patriarch of Constanople, placed the Orthodox
Czechoslovaks in
America
under the jurisdiction of the American Old Catholic Archbishop while at the
same time Savvatios was named Protector of the Old Catholics in
Czechoslovakia
. Thus with a threefold rapprochement with the church of the East a practical
and organize unity of a great part of Catholic Christendom has been realized by
Old Catholics under a program inaugurated by Archbishop Mathew of England in
1910. Underlying the terms of this union are the fundamental principles of the
Old Catholicism--An acceptance of the doctrinal points of unity prevailing in
the undivided Christian Church prior to the year 1054 A.D., i.e., a belief in
Seven Sacraments and in the dogmatic Decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils.

Thus the Catholic Church in America though autonomous and self governed
by its own synod of bishops is an organic part of the Old Catholic Church in the
Western world and the great Orthodox Churches of the East, united in the faith of
the first century Christian fellowship and differing only in the language and
customs of its different units.